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Atheism, is a state of religious disbelief among people across the globe which was an idea born in the early 300 BC. Having it roots in the Greece region, the belief that there existed not God quickly spread to other parts of the globe especially Europe faster that it was thought. Atheism had its toll among the people across the globe in the 1970s. This was marked by an increase in the notion that there existed no deities. The force behind atheism had rapidly expanded in the wake of the 1900s. However, the introduction of two of the world’s most influential religions; Christianity and Islam led to the rampant diversion of the faiths of many people across the globe (Zuckerman, 2010, p. 61).

Different parts of the globe, however, undertook atheism differently. Many parts of the globe had differing affiliations to atheism. Whereas in some parts the irreligious movement underwent a bottleneck, in others it flourished. This can be assessed by demographic studies and analyses done. The United States is one of the nations that have the highest prevalence rates of atheism. Perpetuated by flexibility in the human and civil rights, atheism has taken a great toll in the American population. There has been a modest increase in the number of atheists in the US since the 1950s.

According to Newport, the percentage of the American population that had no affiliation to any religion had grown from naught in the year 1950 to about 16 percent in the in 2013. The number of Americans that were affiliated to no particular religion grew systematically from 3 percent in the year 1948. These figures grew very gradually from that point through 1949, 1950s and 1960 (Newport, 2010). The almost stagnating growth was due to the fact that its introduction as a form of religion was faced by a rampant opposition from the two main dominating groups of religion; Islam and Christianity. In the wake of the year 1970, this errant number began to gradually increase and gain roots among the population. By the year 1970, the population of atheists had sprung to up to 11 percent. These figures were so perhaps due to the fact that the population had been encouraged by the freedom of worship that had been granted by the American administration. This implicated that the majority of the population had not been having the privilege and the freedom to affiliate themselves with the otherwise then-opposed form of irreligion (Newport, 2010).

The increasing trends have caused a considerably much attention from many scholars. There has been many documented efforts to try and explain the reasons behind this characteristic changes that have drawn many Americans towards the prospect of no religious affiliation. Firstly, there has been a trend established along several sub-populations of the American population (Hout, Fischer, 2002). A trend of religious non-affiliations has been established along several different lines such as the levels of education, race, age, political lines among other lines. Studies have been done that have revealed that women are more characteristically religious and are by far less likely to be involved in non-religious events and practices as compared to men (Hout, Fischer, 2002).

However, there is a huge degree of volatility of this factor as women have shown a great amount of change when it comes to religious affiliations over a given period time. On the other hand, the whites have been established to be less religious as compared to both African Americans and Mexican Americans (Hout, Fischer, 2002). In regard to this, up to 21 percent of whites have been established to have no religious preference as compared to an equivalence of 17 percent of African Americans and equivalence of 14 percent of Mexican Americans who had no preference to any form of religion and hence atheists (Hout, Fischer, 2002).

The drastic change by increase of the religiously affiliation among the American population has been attributed to several reasons. Firstly, generational replacement is a significant factor that has led to this. The “Xers” and the baby boomers generation has been attributed to a significant force of the factors that compel people to be irreligious (Nones on the Rise, 2012). Baby boomers have shown in the recent studies to have religious affiliations as compared to the newer generations. Secondly, there has been a huge link between the lack of commitment to any religion and the occupations that people have. Increased occupational obligations make people significantly too busy to have any commitment towards religion. This trend with the work affiliation was detected especially in the 1990’s (Nones on the Rise, 2012).

Atheism has been received with mixed feelings across the United States and the globe as well. Statistics has revealed that there is an increased amount and level of discrimination against people affiliated to atheism. In the US alone, seven states have laws that seemingly prohibit atheism; though the laws are not enforced. Research has also indicated that 53 percent of the Americans loathe an atheist American president. On the other hand, up to 49 percent of American population has been established to be happy in the case of intermarriage between them and other atheists. On the employment sector, up to 65 percent of employers would prefer an atheist employee over a religious one (Hafiz, 2014).

Atheism has raised a considerable measure of concern over whether the population of atheists should be granted the grace of recognition among other religions. In a bid to push for this recognition, several groups have made efforts in regards to making there atheist-affiliated activities recognized. One such as group is the scouts – led boycotts in regard to whether they had a legal right to be recognized in their religious statuses (Hill, 2013).

There has been a spate between the white American and the black American over the issue of atheism. The rise of atheism has led to the introduction of groups that are specially affiliated to specific sides this side-taking, coupled with the fact that the white Americans have been shown to be more atheistic, leads to a characteristic widening of the gap between the two races (Hutchinson, 2012). Study has shown, according to Hoelscher, 2012, that there is a characteristic trend of the level of religiousness of people and their levels of income. Under this, there has been established a high degree of correlation of the level of income that one earns and the religious inclination that they have. Most wealthy people have been shown to be atheists (Hoelscher, 2012).

In conclusion, given the trends and the increased levels of acceptability of the atheists in the society has led to an upward trend in the number of atheists in the general population. Granted the freedom and the increased fight for the rights of this class of people, the trends in the numbers of atheists in the population is most likely to increase at a much higher rate as compared to the rates that it rose with in the 1970s booming period. Over the next few decades, with support from political and human rights movements and legislation, there is a more likelihood that the trend would most likely shoot up.

Reference

Bishop, R. (2007). Taking on the Pledge of Allegiance: The Media and Michael Newdow’s Constitutional Challenge. New York: State Univ of New York Pr. Retrieved from Taking on the Pledge of Allegiance: The Media and Michael Newdow’s Constitutional Challenge

Cragun, R. T. (2012). On the Receiving End: Discrimination toward the Non-Religious in the United States. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 105-127.

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According to a research done in January 2014, 87% of the American adult population use the internet. Most of these adults use mobile devices to access the internet. More men use the internet as compared to men. Statistically, 87% of men use the internet. On the other hand, 86% of women use the internet. Ethnically, whites are the ones who use the internet most. The Pew Research Centre indicated that 85% of white adults, 81% of African-American adults and 83% of Hispanic adults use the internet. The use of the internet significantly varies across various age groups. The most frequent internet users are aged between 18 and 29 years. This age group recorded a 97% internet usage. Adults aged between 30 and 49 years recorded a 93% internet usage. Adults aged between 50 and 64 and those aged above 65 years recorded 88% and 57% internet usage respectively (Pew Research Center, 2014).

The research shows that the frequency of internet usage increases with an increase in annual income. Households which earn $75,000+ recorded 99%, while those earning below $30,000 annually recorded a 77% internet usage. The type of community also has a substantial influence on the use of the internet. The urban, suburban and rural communities recorded internet usage by 88%, 87%, and 83% respectively. Clearly, the use of the internet is not only influenced by age, but also one’s income, education and type of community (Pew Research Center, 2014).

The results obtained in 2014 are very distinct from those collected in 2012. Generally, there has been a significant increase in internet use across all ages, sexes, education levels, income levels and communities. For instance, the 2012 research depicted that only 49% men and 51% women were using the internet. The trend across ages was different. Surprisingly, the adults aged between 18 and 24 years were the least users of the internet with a usage rate of 16%, while the eldest, age group of 55+ recorded a 26% rate which was the highest that year (Pew Research Center, 2014).

Question 2

There are various legal and social trends and issues in the e-commerce sector and internet use. For instance, the issue of digital signatures has been trending for a long time. E-commerce transactions are equated to contracts. Therefore, like any other contract, validity is a sensitive and crucial aspect. However, it gets a little complicated to validate contracts in the internet environment given that the transactions are paperless. To help solve such problems, digital signatures were introduced. These signatures have helped increase the growth of E-commerce since they ensure that the involved parties have agreed to enter to a contractual agreement. The digital signature technology creates the evidence imperative for the integrity and validity of the electronic contract. In addition, this technology is able to detect if any changes have been made to the contract since its signing (In Lee, 2014).

E-commerce has been subjected to various issues touching on taxation. For instance, in November 2014, Main Streets claimed that there was a loophole which gave an unfair upper hand to the online retailers over the Main Street competitors. They also claimed that the unfairness was costing the local communities tax revenues and jobs. In addition, it creates a substantial unfairness in the trading places for both the consumers and business alike. Firstly, the challenge was on taxing the e-commerce businesses. This challenge is currently going on in India, where they do not know how to tax the newly introduce Amazon Company (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2014).

There are also social issues in this sector. The use of social media has continually become a big success for E-commerce businesses. Currently, it is said that if your e-commerce business is not engaging in social media, you are missing a lot of opportunities. Many experts in this industry concur that social media goes beyond mere brand promotion. It gives the online business a platform to interact effectively with its target audience. The E-commerce businesses have turned to social marketing campaigns which focus on creating a buzz amongst the target audience. The use of social media has turned out to be one of the most recent trends in the industry (In Lee, 2014).

Question 3

Adoption of E-commerce strategies may have negative or positive implications on the business ventures. In America, the most successful online business is the Amazon Company. The company holds the highest sales volume among all web-based businesses. Clearly, the other E-commerce ventures can learn various things, from Amazon particularly regarding strategy adoption. The basic strategy implemented by Amazon is that of optimizing the business’ site to suit the product’s nature as well as the customers’ preferences. This ensures that the site’s content is perfectly customized. In addition, the business should adopt the most suitable software for its site operations. For instance, Amazon uses a pattern recognition software. This will enable the site to review a customer’s purchase history in order to make a recommendation list for the customer. Such features enable an E-commerce business to thrive amidst competition (Fox, 2009).

Communication is key in any E-commerce business. This enhances the customer relations as well as customer services offered. For instance, Amazon has adopted a highly integrated customer service system. The system supports communications through telephone, fax, and email. Communication between the customers and the business venture should be kept effective to allow the business to get feedback on its services and products. It also enhances the organizational responsiveness of the business. Such strategies will only have positive impacts on the current and future E-commerce ventures (Fox, 2009).

Dell has also significantly prospered in this industry. According to this company, it is imperative for E-commerce ventures to adopt customization and personalization tools. For smaller enterprises, they can integrate their websites with those of their trading partners to help ease their costs. In addition, the firms ought to place equal value on the product’s quality and content of their site. The firms should be concerned about the quality of customer service they offer for it is crucial in creating a broad base of customers. The adoption of such strategies has been proven to yield positive results (Fox, 2009).

Question 4

E-government adoption may be defined as the intention to have citizens engage in information exchange and request the government services. E-government is a complex multidimensional construct. For the e-government adoption to succeed, various things must be put into considerations. Firstly, the site should offer the citizens utmost satisfaction. Satisfaction may be defined as the fulfillment one derives from a service. Analytically, customer satisfaction is differentiated into two constituent parts: overall satisfaction and transactional satisfaction. Transactional satisfaction may be defined as satisfaction drawn from particular individual transactions. The quality of transactional satisfaction differs from one transaction to another. Overall satisfaction is obtained when numerous transactional specific satisfactions are recorded as positive. It is imperative that e-government adoption provides the citizens with the highest levels of satisfaction. Higher levels of citizen’s satisfaction will in turn increase the rate at which the adoption will occur (Sebina, Moahi, & Bwalya, 2014).

The quality of services offered impacts citizen satisfaction. For the government to succeed in this online business, it has to provide the best quality of services. The governments need to comprehend the needs of its citizens and also tailor services which will adequately cater for those needs. The government may adopt an e-strategy founded on a user-perspective approach. This approach will help determine how information may be effectively organized as well as how it is delivered to citizens. While planning, the needs of the citizens should be given a higher priority than those of the government. As a result, the services offered are founded on the needs of the users rather than departmental structures. The quality of the services offered may be measured based on empathy, tangibles, responsiveness, reliability and assurance. The government may further subdivide the services to cover citizens, and non-citizens. The web design is very imperative in the adoption process. Therefore, the e-government sites should be designed so as to serve the target market effectively and efficiently (Sebina, Moahi, & Bwalya, 2014).

Pew Research Center. (2012, November 7). A Comparison of Results from Surveys by the Pew Research Center and Google Consumer Surveys | Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.people-press.org/2012/11/07/a-comparison-of-results-from-surveys-by-the-pew-research-center-and-google-consumer-surveys/